Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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THIS WEEK WITH MARGARET THIS WEEK WITH MARGARET Life Happens by MARGARET DICKSON The novelist Ann Patchett, a southerner from Tennessee and a fi ne and thoughtful writer, was invited several years ago to give the commencement address at her alma mater, Sarah Lawrence College. Patchett wrote what she envisioned a speech appropriate for the occasion and then showed it to her former writing professor at Sarah Lawrence, Allan Gurganus, a native Tar Heel, who suggested she chunk it and write another one from her heart. Patchett took her teacher’s advice and wrote a speech entitled “What Now?” which has become an Internet favorite and which she later expanded into a small book. It seems to resonate not only with young people setting forth into their adult lives but with people at various stages of life who are facing crossroads and signifi cant decisions. One of her observations on life struck me particularly, and I have not stopped pondering it since my book club read What Now? earlier this year. Many of us work hard to prepare ourselves for life. We get an education, perhaps become a professional in some fi eld that interests us, so that we can be productive and earn a comfortable living for ourselves and our families. We try to get ourselves established before starting a family, and we try to stay healthy so we can be around to enjoy our lives and those we love. All of this is well and good, says Patchett, but the reality is that our lives are shaped not so much by what we do as by what happens to us and around us. In other words, the forces that direct our lives are more beyond our control than within it. We all recognize this from time to time in our own lives, but Patchett’s little book set me off on this line of thinking, and I am still at it. The most obvious examples, of course, are random and unexpected events, accidents or illnesses that derail individuals and families, sometimes ending lives altogether and OPINION changing courses for those who remain. Think of people who suddenly win an enormous lottery and what that does to their lives, both positively and negatively. And how, for example, would my own life have unfolded differently had I not returned to Fayetteville when my mother was diagnosed with a terminal illness and I entered our family business years earlier than I had planned? Then there are the actions of others which change life’s course for people around them. Think of the trusted but wayward spouse who squanders the family resources, runs away with another, or both. In our current economy, think of those who have lost jobs because of employers’ decisions over which they had no control or of business owners who have failed because of global economic forces beyond their reach and understanding. Life happens in happy ways as well. Among the most famous such bolts of random lightning occurred to Lana Turner. As a struggling but apparently gorgeous 16-year-old she decided to skip a typing class at Hollywood High and was discovered drinking a Coke at the Top Hat Café by a movie agent. That chance encounter transformed her into a legendary actress of the 20th century. Lesser lights have such experiences as well. I know of one young person who was offered a career setting job in New York in part because she and the person who interviewed her — who did so only because the company partner was not available — had mutual friends in a popular clothing business. Then there is the young couple desperately hoping to start a family whose doctor rang up to say that a woman then sitting in his offi ce would give birth shortly to a baby she planned to relinquish and would they be interested in adopting that child. Many of us see these parts of our lives, whether positive or negative, in religious terms, as part of our Creator’s plan for us even though we might not understand much less welcome, it. Others of us see them as just part of life that occurs outside our control or our bidding and which we have to deal with as best we can. Either way, it seems to me that Ann Patchett is right. No matter how well we plan and prepare, no matter how we dream of our lives unfolding in the manner we hope, we must nonetheless brace ourselves for the unexpected, even the unimaginable. I know of no one who has escaped this reality of being a human being, and I suspect you do not either. Life does indeed happen. MARGARET DICKSON, Contributing Writer COMMENTS? 484-6200 ext. 222 or editor@upandcomingweekly.com. Time Bomb In the Gulf by SHARON VALENTINE The gash in the Gulf fl oor is spewing more than oil. There is a ticking time bomb that is more dangerous than the devastating oil slicks and toxic stew of oil disbursements that have sickened more than1,500 cleanup workers. The BP volcano that spewed for 90 days also contained methane gas. According to Texas A&M Professor Kessler, the methane was one million times more concentrated than normal. And where oilmen expect to see fi ve percent methane to 95 percent oil, the Deep Horizon gusher produced a 40 percent methane to 60 percent oil ratio. In a recent interview Richard C. Hoagland, NASA consultant and Cronkite science advisor, said a bulge has been detected on the ocean fl oor and leaks are springing up a few miles from the BP wellhead. Admiral Thad Allan, head of the government task force on the crisis, attributes the seepage to an abandoned well a few miles away. This would be credible if the BP well was not a deepwater operation and the leaks had been identifi ed before the blowout. But these sudden anomalies have only surfaced since the capping of the BP wellhead. ROVs (remote ocean vehicle) moving 1,500 feet above the Gulf fl oor are showing an explosion of oil and debris strong enough to move against tremendous water pressure a mile deep. The hard fact according to Max Simmons, George W. Bush’s energy advisor and oilman, is the leaks are coming from fractures elsewhere on the ocean fl oor — not another well or seepage around the base of the BP well. These leaks are upper formation in origin, different from the BP spill and are being forced to the surface from methane gas pressure being displaced from the BP well — a classic case of oil under pressure breaking through the strata. The government has been hesitant to approve a second attempt to kill the well while WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM pressure tests were being studied. But incredibly it appears as if BP will receive permission to proceed with the “static kill.” BP will pressurize the capped well head and force drilling mud into the well from the top. This pressure could cause an unstable sea fl oor to erupt allowing methane gas to rise to the surface in a frothy fi zz of bubbles that have no buoyancy. Ships, oil rigs and people would drop to the bottom like rocks. The water rushing back into the gas created saucer would cause a tsunami that would rush ashore at 600 mph. So when could this catastrophe happen — days, weeks, months? No one has a clue. Several weeks ago Congressman Edward Markey, chairman of the Select Committee for Energy Independence, demanded the “mud logs” from BP. Mud logs are the only accurate source of geological assessment but BP considers the logs proprietary information and stiffed Markey’s request. Hoagland is furious that 20 million people are living on “ground zero” and is adamant that BP must release the mud logs. His frustration extends to a federal response that is inexperienced and lacking the necessary expertise to take control of the situation from a corporation rife with corruption. Buoys that were not placed immediately after the BP explosion to begin collecting data must now be replaced with tsunami buoys at a minimum. The public is cynical and suspicious of the response that seems confused and mired in bureaucracy. But a potential bomb may have the fuse lit in the next few days. Release the Mud Logs. Distribute the tsunami buoys. Do something! As unthinkable as this catastrophe is — it is not Sci-Fi. SHARON VALENTINE Contributing Writer COMMENTS? 484-6200 ext. 222 or editor@upandcomingweekly.com. JULY 28-AUGUST 3, 2010 UCW 5